School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at Notre Dame High School, Norwich?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 66 families who named Notre Dame High School, Norwich as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 205 and 265 put it first.

Below: what an appeal in Norfolk actually involves, and how contested this school has been over 12 years of official figures.

1.29

first choices for every place available

265 first preferences for 205 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at Notre Dame High School, Norwich

There is no published appeal success rate for Notre Dame High School, Norwich, or for any individual school in England. The Department for Education collects appeal outcomes and publishes them by council. The figures here are for Norfolk as a whole and cover every state-funded school in the authority. Anyone quoting you odds for a named school is making them up.

Across Norfolk, 43.2% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 244 of 565 appeals heard in 2024–2026. The England figure is 20.1%.

A panel is not deciding whether you want the school. It decides whether the admission arrangements were lawful and correctly applied, and then whether the harm to your child of not being admitted outweighs the harm to the school of going over its published number. Cases built on preference rather than on those two questions are the ones that fail.

See the full appeal figures for Norfolk.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Norfolk ones. Whichever school you are appealing for, the panel works through the same two stages and is required to ignore the same things.

How contested this school has been

Notre Dame High School, Norwich turned first-choice families away in every one of the 12 years published. In each of those years more families named it as their first choice than it had places available.

First preferences per place at Notre Dame High School, Norwich, 2015/16 to 2026/27. A value above 1 means more families named the school first than there were places. 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 one first preference per place 15/16 17/18 19/20 21/22 23/24 25/26 26/27 2015/16 1.1 per place 216 first choices 196 places 2016/17 1.15 per place 227 first choices 198 places 2017/18 1.06 per place 222 first choices 209 places 2018/19 1.55 per place 325 first choices 210 places 2019/20 1.54 per place 314 first choices 204 places 2020/21 1.31 per place 273 first choices 209 places 2021/22 1.29 per place 265 first choices 205 places 2022/23 1.42 per place 295 first choices 208 places 2023/24 1.41 per place 294 first choices 208 places 2024/25 1.27 per place 257 first choices 203 places 2025/26 1.39 per place 284 first choices 204 places 2026/27 1.29 per place 265 first choices 205 places
First preferences per place at Notre Dame High School, Norwich. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 265 first preferences for 205 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at Notre Dame High School, Norwich, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 196 216 190 1.1
2016/17 198 227 196 1.15
2017/18 209 222 198 1.06
2018/19 210 325 206 1.55
2019/20 204 314 200 1.54
2020/21 209 273 206 1.31
2021/22 205 265 200 1.29
2022/23 208 295 202 1.42
2023/24 208 294 203 1.41
2024/25 203 257 199 1.27
2025/26 204 284 203 1.39
2026/27 205 265 199 1.29

Places offered

205

in 2026/27

Named first choice

265

564 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

75.1%

199 of 265

Offers to families outside the council

9%

19 of 205 offers

Was the school full?

This is the question a panel spends most of its time on. At the second stage of an appeal it weighs the harm to the school of taking an extra child against the harm to your child of being refused — and how much room the school has is the heart of that. The admission authority has to show harm over and above the fact that its published number has been reached, so it is fair to ask what the specific harm is — how the second stage actually works.

Places, Years 7 to 11

1,143

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

1,067

93.4% of capacity

Unfilled places

76

across Years 7 to 11

Sixth form places

410

excluded from the figures above

Read this before you use these numbers

These are whole-school figures across Years 7 to 11, not the year group you are appealing for. A school can hold spare places in its upper years while the year you want is genuinely full, and the panel will have the year-group numbers in front of it. So this does not show that Notre Dame High School, Norwich has room for your child.

They are also the school's own reported capacity, as at 1 May 2025 — a year behind the application figures further up this page, and a description rather than a finding.

On the published figures Notre Dame High School, Norwich reported 76 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 93.4% of capacity. That is worth asking about — but ask it as a question, not an assertion. A panel will want the figure for the year group in question, and the school may have a good answer about staffing, rooms or timetabling.

Places and pupils on roll, whole school, 2011/12 to 2024/25

Places Pupils on roll

Places and pupils on roll at Notre Dame High School, Norwich from 2011/12 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 800 1,600 places on roll 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 20/21 22/23 24/25 2011/12 1,378 places 1,371 on roll 2012/13 1,378 places 1,374 on roll 2013/14 1,378 places 1,373 on roll 2014/15 1,378 places 1,399 on roll 2015/16 1,378 places 1,370 on roll 2016/17 1,378 places 1,401 on roll 2017/18 1,378 places 1,463 on roll 2018/19 1,378 places 1,496 on roll 2020/21 1,460 places 1,493 on roll 2021/22 1,460 places 1,530 on roll 2022/23 1,460 places 1,569 on roll 2023/24 1,460 places 1,592 on roll 2024/25 1,553 places 1,567 on roll
Whole-school figures including any sixth form, as at 1 May each year. 2019/20 is missing because the 2020 School Capacity survey was cancelled.

Department for Education, School capacity, school-level file, 2024/25. Published under the Open Government Licence.

What these figures do not tell you

About the school

Type
Academy converter
Admissions policy
Non-selective
Religious character
Faith
Entry point
Year 7
Council
Norfolk

Postcode NR1 3PB. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 137913).

Other contested secondary schools in Norfolk

Applications and offers: Department for Education, Primary and secondary school applications and offers, school-level file, 2026/27. Appeal figures: Admission appeals in England. Both under the Open Government Licence.